Twenty-eight Occidental Students Invited to National Research Conference

February 4, 2010

Twenty-eight Occidental College students will present their work at the National Undergraduate Research Conference held at the University of Montana, Missoula, April 15-17.

Faculty-mentored undergraduate research is a signature program of Occidental, and has attracted national attention. In fact, the number of Oxy researchers this year is more than the number of student researchers from USC, UCLA, MIT, the University of Chicago, and Yale combined.

Over the past five years, 150 Occidental student researchers have been invited to the NCUR. The conference, which began in 1987, now hosts 2,000 students and their faculty mentors from colleges and universities across the country.

The invited students - whose majors include chemistry, economics, English and comparative literary studies, and diplomacy and world affairs -- will give talks or display posters about their research. Topics include Russian energy politics, an empirical investigation of traffic flow, and "reinforcing the Cinderella myth" through YouTube wedding dance videos.

Here are the Occidental students accepted to attend the undergraduate research conference (included are graduation years, majors, and project titles):

• Sara Amri '11, Diplomacy and World Affairs, "Sex Workers and HIV/AIDS: The Implementation of Local Models of Education and Prevention in Mumbai, India"